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Chapter 5: Prison Break
After weeks at sea, Thea, Alvyn, Berrain, and Haroof finally arrived back at Freeport to find it being patrolled by knights clad in purple and gold. They checked in at the Smiling Eel Tavern, but the building was empty and Roscoe was nowhere to be found. Next they tried Greenbottle's Pawn Shop, hoping that Garrett had identified the mysterious symbol from the smuggler's and Mort's tattoos. Garrett, who greeted them at the door, was shocked to see them. Everyone had assumed that they were dead, he told them; much had happened while they had been gone, and they needed to be brought up to speed. He led them into the back room of the pawn shop. To their surprise, Rob, the Kenku thief with whom they had fought twice, was there. Garrett explained that he had indeed identified the symbol: it was the ancient sigil of the Death Knights, a long since disbanded branch of the Templar Knights who had once terrorized the land with their brutal and merciless tactics. The Death Knights had only ever been used during times when the Temple was actively at war, seeking to expand its influence, but they hadn't been used in centuries and the Temple no longer engaged in such acts of violence. Upon discovering the symbol's meaning, and considering that two Clerics had arrived in the city days earlier, Garrett had immediately become suspicious of the Temple. When Nari had declared the Freeport Guard unfit to protect its citizens, arrested Drake Shieldheart for incompetence, and imposed martial law with his Templar Knights as the primary peacekeeping force, Garrett became certain that he had been behind events from the start. Garrett had taken his concerns to Roscoe Vanderbilt, who had in turn gone to the Kenku, the only remaining organization in the city with the means and the desire to resist the Temple. The Kenku had been working to subvert the Templar Knights' control of Freeport ever since, but they had had little success thus far. Rob then divulged the location of the Kenku headquarters to the adventurers and advised them to go and present themselves to the Kenku leadership if they wished to help. The four of them left Greenbottle's Pawn Shop and headed to Sutherland's Lenders, which, according to Rob, housed the headquarters in its basement. At the Lenders, the group met Leviticus Sutherland, the proprietor of the shop, and Max Jackman, the security guard. After giving the correct password, they were led into the basement. Katya Markovic, whom Haroof recognized as the tiefling bard from the Nest, Roscoe Vanderbilt, and another young tiefling were waiting for them. Katya, Leviticus, and Max reintroduced themselves as Raven, Crow, and Rook, the leaders of the criminal syndicate the Kenku. The young tiefling was introduced as Darius a.k.a. Tyranny, Raven's nephew from Reah. First, Crow brought out the book on ancient alchemical substances he had stolen from Garret Greenbottle and told the adventurers that he had identified the black sand: it was a substance mined out of the northern mountains which had recently been rediscovered by the dwarves of Coppervein. As a demonstration, he placed a small pouch of the sand on the table, and Tyranny lit it with a flame. The pouch exploded violently, leaving a scorch mark on the table. The group shared what they had learned about Nari's plan to attack the Festival of the Tides with the black sand and the concurrent sahuagin attack. With all their cards on the table, the adventurers and the Kenku agreed that their next course of action should be to free Drake from captivity in the Bow. They believed that the Freeport Guard would still be loyal to him, and they would need his support to combat the Templar Knights. Raven told the party that although the front entrance to the Bow was guarded by a dozen knights, there was rumored to be a secret entrance through the sewers. Rumor had it, she said, that there was some sort of rat society, led by a Rat King, living in the sewers. If anyone knew how to get into the Bow from there, it would be him. She asked them to enter the sewers and try sneak into the Bow to free Drake. She sent her nephew, Tyranny, along with them for backup. Thea, Alvyn, Tyranny, Berrain, and Haroof went to the basement of the Smiling Eel Tavern and entered the rat tunnels. The tunnels eventually led into the sewers; after fighting against the currents and dispatching two wererats who were guarding the deeper levels, they finally found the Rat King's lair and, after paying him a large sum of gold, he shared with them the location of the secret entrance to the Bow. The party came up in the basement of the building and cut their way through several guards before making it to the second floor. There, they came upon three Templar Knights whom they talked into surrendering. Waiting for them on the third floor was Randall Brash, Drake's second-in-command who had betrayed him on the orders of Nari the Trickster and had taken his position as Captain of the Guard. After a fierce battle, the adventurers were able to defeat and kill Randall. On his desk, they found a letter that detailed Nari's plan in full: he was going to detonate large quantities of black sand in the Bazaar on the night of the Festival of the Tides, killing thousands, and blame the attack on the Kenku. At the same time, the sahuagin would attack the docks, and Nari's Templar Knights would be there to repel the assault. When all was said and done, the people of Freeport would hail the Temple forces as heroes and curse the Freeport Guard for allowing such an attack to occur. Nari and his men would have complete control of the city, and the Temple of the Seven would once again be the dominant power in the Free Bay. The party proceeded to the Bow's clock tower, where Drake was being held, and released him from his chains. Before leaving, they returned to the second floor and showed Randall's letter, implicating Nari in the upcoming attack, to the Templar Knights who had surrendered to them. The knights claimed no knowledge of the attack, and promised to show the letter to their comrades. The adventurers broke out one face of the clock and used a rope to descend down the side of the building, touching down in an alleyway and stealthily returning to Sutherland's Lenders to plan their next move.